


Breathing On Your Bedroom Floor

by Whatthef0ucault



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: 2019-2020 NHL Season, 2020 NHL Playoffs Bubble, Accidental Relationship, Alternate Universe - No Girlfriends/No Wives, Best Friends, Dogs, Domestic Bliss, Florida Panthers, Fluff, Former Bruins, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, M/M, Masks, Providence Bruins, Quarantine, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:15:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29815863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whatthef0ucault/pseuds/Whatthef0ucault
Summary: Fox Sports Florida (04/24/2020)How are you staying connected to your teammates during the break?Noel Acciari:"Well I live close to Connolly and Frank so...I've walked the dog with Frank a couple of times..."Or“Youhaven’t gone anywhere?”“Yeah! I’ve been a super homebody this whole time. The same as you,” Frank insisted, half amused and half offended while he continued, “I’m not being the reason the team gets screwed, or yanno...worse.” Frank’s words seemed to trail off, swallowing over the last.Noel softened, Frank's words sobering him again with a little nod.“I know, I know. I totally trust you. If you don’t feel comfortable, though, I get it.”Frank, in gentle defiance, looked at Noel dead in the eyes while he pulled his mask off.
Relationships: Noel Acciari/Frank Vatrano
Kudos: 18





	Breathing On Your Bedroom Floor

**Author's Note:**

> So with it somehow already being March again after this hellish year (literally my quarantine started a year ago today lmao), and Noel just out here always with the loving Frank hours, I wanted to write a little something about them during the pause and play-offs last year. There were even more places I could have taken this, but I wanted to get it out to ya'll asap while my longfic work continues (rip me). Thank you for stopping by!
> 
> Fic title taken from Boxcar Racer's [There Is](https://youtu.be/_mliF5sGUw4).
> 
> Feel free to stop by my [tumblr](https://www.letsbakethatcake.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Thank you to my [beta](https://www.sadtrashwitch.tumblr.com/) for all your endless support.

Like a familiar pattern in the whole of Noel’s friendship with Frank, it all began as a happy accident.

Sure, Noel had intentionally walked his dog Thor the few houses over to Frank's on their shared street. It was only because the moment he had realized he hadn’t seen the other in a few weeks, his feet had taken on a mind of their own before he could think about it too much (Noel was hardly ever in the realm of thinking too much).

It was also possible, perhaps, that Noel intentionally opened Frank’s side gate when he had heard one of the many songs the other had had on repeat in their locker room before the pause. It might've been entirely too easy for him to set Thor loose into the yard with the spare keys he already had to Frank's home and gate.

Noel had absolutely no doubt it had been worth it when he saw the exact moment the unsuspecting man half dozing in his adirondack chair in the Florida sun had gotten the rude wake up call of Thor's tongue all over his face.

"Jax! What are— _Thor_?!"

Frank's face had dodged the tongue attack and scrunched under his sunglasses that got knocked off his face less than a second later by the big goofball Goldie climbing all the way onto his lap and bare chest. Jax barked loudly and charged from across the yard. Frank didn't have to struggle much longer when Thor ditched him for his own best friend. They continued their barking chants and joyous, ritualistic greeting of circling around each other and diving into play time.

“Aren’t you tan enough?”

Noel had greeted Frank and all of his mid-Spring Italian sun in jest. It was just so easy when the other was so meticulous with his looks over the years, this certainly wasn't the first time Noel had come upon him in similar positions.

The only evidence of Noel's playful look behind his mask had been the way his eyes turned up slightly in the corners and his trademark dimple lines that always peeked over the edges of the material.

Still loosely holding his chest with a black and white tattooed arm, Frank had almost caught his breath by the time he was answering Noel back between a shit eating smile.

“Aren’t you enough of a prick?"

"Nah, it's been too long," Noel had answered, matter-of-factly. "Had to change that."

Frank had shaken his head at the man he called his best friend. The groan that escaped between bitten down, labored laughs really had said it all to Noel before Frank had actually spoken over his shoulder while going to fetch a shirt, his mask, and Jax's leash.

"I can't believe I actually missed you."

. . .

Four weeks later, with an ever increasing frequency of occurrence, the knock at Noel’s door marked the third time that week.

Frank’s smile was easy to recognize under his mask. By now, Noel had forced himself to learn to pick up on the way his hooded eyes narrowed. Although he couldn’t see the wide, expressive mouth to match like Noel had been used to spotting across rooms and ice rinks, the creases and shifts in the edges of the other's cheeks acted as a reminder of that brightness.

“Ready for your dose of Vitamin D?” Frank asked, standing on Noel’s porch with Jax in tow.

“Yeah, just hang on.” Noel grinned behind his screen door before he disappeared. He remerged a moment later with Thor leashed and his own mask donned. Both dogs circled each other excitedly in greeting, their joy on full, shameless display.

“Can’t wait for the day we don’t have to wear these stupid things,” Frank grumbled while they started down Noel’s front yard.

It wasn’t the first time he’d said it, but Noel still agreed wholeheartedly in his own reply, “I know, seriously. They keep saying it's going to be next week, and then the week after and—"

“It’s gonna be _months_.”

Noel looked over at his old friend beside him, and the quiet tone in Frank's voice pulled at something in his gut. Frank’s face looked exceptionally normal now along the edges, but when his eyes looked at Noel, he thought he might’ve seen a depth to that brown he couldn’t quite place, yet.

“I hope not. But maybe we’ll at least get some news about hockey soon.”

The scoff that left Frank’s covered lips confirmed Noel’s suspicions.

“Radio silence so far...still ever the optimist.”

It was the second half of Frank’s words, the upturn of his tone that returned from that dark place that pulled Noel’s attention back to him. In the same moment that Noel noticed those hints of Frank’s cheek lines were back, he felt the sweet brush of warm, smooth skin against his palm for the first time in six long, lonely, strange weeks.

“Eh, you know me,” Noel shrugged, his own smile gentle behind his mask, even if it was suddenly a little harder to breathe. Before he could think about it too much, their hands were still swinging in casual, everyday tandem next to each other. The inches of space restored suddenly felt like feet.

“I do,” Frank confirmed, his eyes squinting at him with it.

Yeah, it was definitely, completely an accident.

. . .

The Florida sun beating down on Frank and Noel’s skin in the early June heat was almost as relentless as the pace Thor and Jax wanted to keep dragging them both at. They were already almost swimming through the humidity, let alone trying to breathe through it, too.

“Why...the fuck...are we doing... this again?” Noel said between huffs and puffs. He was pretty sure the burning in his lungs, his legs, and on his pinkening skin was probably worse than death, probably.

“Seemed...like...a good idea?” Frank offered, just as breathless next to Noel. The younger man then grasped at straws the same way he tried to relieve his dry mouth with a quick drink from his water bottle through the side of his mask, only to find it empty. “Uh...the dogs...are happy??”

Noel forced himself to shift his focus to the Golden Retriever and Goldendoodle in front of both of them. The way they panted like mad, their tongues hanging out of their mouths with the wind whipping through their different types of golden fur, and the biggest smiles on their silly faces, pulled a pained smile to Noel’s as well.

“Fine, but the...roller skating idea...seems way better…”

Frank, somehow, got out a huff of a laugh that Noel couldn’t dream of doing while they turned the corner down their street, especially not with their faces also covered the way they were.

“Done.”

Within a few minutes, Noel was letting them both into the cool air conditioning of his living room. Both men let out respective sighs when the cold air hit their sweat soaked skin, adding that magical touch to the chill in the most relieving way.

“Never...again.” Noel doubled over as dramatic as he felt was necessary, which was very.

“The trainers said running might help us keep our legs a little!” Frank counter-protested Noel’s protests. “Forgive me for forgetting how much _that_ sucked.”

Noel made a beeline straight for the kitchen after he saw the dogs both hover over Thor's water dish. He returned with two new water bottles of his own and handed one over to Frank, who took it with a little grateful bowing gesture with his hands.

“You’ll be forgiven if you hang out for a while,” Noel said, his crinkled eyes returning above his mask.

Frank’s own eyes widened slightly, his eyebrows raising in a look that Noel half recognized as caution, but could have easily been one of the many types of sass Frank could throw his way at any moment. It was still so hard to tell, sometimes.

“You sure that’s a good idea? Think that's careful enough?” Frank referenced their guidelines from their coaches and the league as a whole, wanting them to be able to come back at any point with the least amount of exposure possible.

Caution, so it seemed, was plaguing Frank, which was fascinating to Noel given the role reversal.

“Aren’t _you_ normally the risk taker?”

Frank tilted his head at him, one of those eyebrows raising, and that little thrill Noel tended to get right in the pit of his stomach when he messed with Frank was alive and well when that familiar sass from the other finally returned.

“Hey, do not get it twisted, Bro. I just haven't ever wanted to skate _so bad_ in my entire life, okay?”

Noel, finally having enough oxygen in his lungs to live, could now chuckle properly at Frank’s quip.

“I literally don’t go anywhere, I’ve seen the people at the grocery store, Connelly once in a while, and you since the stop. That’s it.”

“Really?” Frank asked, sounding a little surprised.

“Yeah, so it’d be fine, I’m assuming, right?”

Frank seemed frozen for a moment, his eyes watching Noel with a sudden unspoken...something. Then he blinked and shook his head as if he'd been daydreaming, and was quickly and heartily agreeing, “Right, yeah. Basically the same here. I haven’t been anywhere else either.”

It was Noel’s turn to be surprised—and to give him a hard time, of course.

“ _You_ haven’t gone anywhere?”

“Yeah! I’ve been a super homebody this whole time. The same as you,” Frank insisted, half amused and half offended while he continued, “I’m not being the reason the team gets screwed, or yanno...worse.” Frank’s words seemed to trail off, swallowing over the last.

Noel softened, Frank's words sobering him again with a little nod.

“I know, I know. I totally trust you. If you don’t feel comfortable, though, I get it.”

Frank, in gentle defiance, looked at Noel dead in the eyes while he pulled his mask off.

Noel took in a silent, sharp breath. His chest tightened when those deeper pink lips were revealed to him for the first time in weeks, pulled into that little playful smile he knew. The way Frank’s eyes paired pleasantly heavy underneath, like he was squinting but not, should have given it away. Oh well.

Noel pulled his own off, too.

The dumb smile he had on gave away his delighted, but accidental intentions all along.

. . .

“I fucking hate Covid.”

Noel bit back the amusement that wanted to come out as he came in from Frank’s back patio, both of the dog leashes in his hand.

Frank was still laid up on his recliner right where he’d left him half an hour ago icing his legs when Noel went to walk both the dogs at his own insistence. Luckily, Frank hadn’t fought him very hard about it, for once.

“Oh yeah?”

Noel had listened to Frank griping about it off and on ever since they had gotten back from their second day of skating conditioning at the IceDen earlier in the day. Frank’s legs, as impressive as they still were with the amount of training they had done together over the last three months, had given him an exceptionally hard time in getting reacclimated to the ice than he had anticipated. Naturally, this resulted in the competitive little fuck pushing himself a bit too hard, despite everyone’s warnings.

Frank didn’t answer Noel this time, however. He was distracted from the unreal soreness in his legs by giggling at both of the dogs trying to half climb up to lick at his face.

“Oh hello, my boys. Hello, hellllooo, did you have good walks with Noel? Did you?”

“You want that peanut chicken stuff I made last week?” Noel asked from the kitchen, already reaching into Frank’s freezer for his prepped meals.

“Mm, yeah, that shit was _good_ good.”

The satisfied tone in Frank’s voice matched the easy, squinted grin on his face when Noel leaned over into the shared entryway between the two rooms enough to see it.

“ _Good_.” Noel mimicked back with his own satisfied look. He was glad the other had stopped fighting him on such things a few weeks ago, especially now.

A couple of hours later, with their stomachs full and a stupid comedy movie running on the tv, Noel looked over and noticed Frank was dead to the world in his chair. He became distracted by the way the planes of his face were smoothed and relaxed, how his lips were slightly parted, and how he was so transcendentally still. It was all so different to how Frank normally felt to him while he was awake. Whether or not Frank was in his literal loud and boisterous or quiet and observing moods, his energy was always striking, always keenly present to Noel, until now. In this moment, everything felt as subdued as Frank looked.

Noel waited a few more minutes, glancing back at Frank every so often, until he realized Frank wasn’t waking up anytime soon. The light snoring the older heard coming from the younger only seemed to confirm that, pulling a fond look over Noel’s features. He let out a gentle sigh, turning everything off on auto-pilot to turn them both in for the night.

It wasn’t until Noel had hooked his arms around and under Frank and lifted the other’s weight all the way out of the chair that his self-awareness finally came careening back into his brain. Blinking down at Frank’s still sleeping form curled into him, that tightness in his chest seized with a vengeance. He had absolutely no idea what the hell he was really doing, but he felt, whatever it was, how he desperately wanted to do it.

Oops.

It was only once Noel crossed the threshold into Frank’s bedroom that his brain fog finally seemed to clear. Noel’s heart was beating harder. Uncharacteristic nerves crawled up into his stomach when he saw the other’s bed. The predicament he was in became all too obvious, imagining the different ‘what if’s’ regarding Frank waking up and realizing Noel was trying to _tuck him in_ of all things.

It made sense the more Noel reasoned with himself as he approached the bed. After all, waking Frank up to walk up to bed on his own when he was in pain didn’t make as much sense as this did, clearly. Even if that realization made his chest tighten, again, or, for that matter, made Frank’s skin pressed all against his own in their casual under tanks and shorts they were practically living in by this point feel that much warmer; Noel was sticking to it.

“Mmwhere you goin’?” Frank asked in a mumble when Noel had set him into the bed and was moving to pull back as stealthily as he could.

“What?” Noel whispered in red-handed surprise, not sure how awake Frank really was.

Given the way the smaller man rolled over onto his side while holding onto one of Noel’s arms, effectively pulling Noel into the bed and over his back, he seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

“ _No_ ,” Frank said, soft but emphatic.

Noel had never been more grateful for Frank’s attention to be elsewhere while a rare flush popped up on his cheeks in pure shock. He also had never been more disappointed that, from this angle, he could only half see the indignant, pouting way the single syllabled declaration had left the other’s devastatingly cute lips.

Shit.

. . .

Work became distracting for Noel and Frank in the way it was distracting to everyone in the everyday sense. When their hockey season was finally, _finally_ put back on for the play-offs, when the Panthers were given their second chance, Noel and Frank threw themselves into it wholeheartedly. They came home after each of their practice days over the next couple of weeks exhausted, with one or the other crawling over to the other’s house when they could. Their dog walks in the mornings or evenings were quieter, much to Jax and Thor’s disappointment. Luckily for Noel, Frank hadn’t seemed to mind the comfortable change of pace in the slightest.

Their experience in the bubble was so short lived, they barely got a chance to get into the groove of Toronto unlike some of their old friends on old teams. A week was just long enough to watch their hopes for their own team get built up and shot back down to Earth again.

And still, Noel had the brief stint of reliving the experience of suddenly missing Frank outside of practice and games again. He got a brief taste of that lonely isolation creeping in at night in their individual hotel rooms in stark contrast to the shared life they’d created together between their tiny households. He barely had a chance to experience those middle of the night or good morning texts between himself and Frank when either of them couldn’t sleep.

Almost as fast as it had begun, Noel was packing his bags to head home, where Covid cases were on the ever increasing rise in Southern Florida, where they didn’t have the privilege of daily testing at their disposal to know they were almost truly safe.

Hearing a knock at his door, Noel was surprised when a masked Frank and all of his bags came pressing into his room the moment he had opened it.

“What—” Noel started to ask, but Frank cut him off.

“Shh, didn’t want them to see me, not that it really matters anymore, but, I don’t know if they’d fine me or what.”

“...Okay.” Noel took in Frank’s rambling while the other walked past him further into the room. Following him, Noel then motioned back at the door with his thumb. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Frank said a little too quickly. He turned around, looking up at Noel while he let his many bags fall out of his hands and off his shoulder. “Yeah, just wanted to—erm…”

Noel wasn’t even trying to hide the concern plastered over his own face as he took a couple of steps to close their gap. Frank’s eyes weren’t squinting, those creases weren’t there on the sides of his face. Those eyes were wider than usual, with his eyelashes framing them, searching all over Noel’s face with a frantic sort of energy. Noel’s hands brushed over Frank’s, their skin sliding together smooth and easy.

This time, Noel clasped them together.

“Noel—,” Frank said, then blinked at himself, pulling one hand free to pull his mask off his face with an annoyed “stupid fucking thing” before he was putting his hand back into Noel’s purposefully.

Glancing down as if to make sure what he’d felt had been real, Noel saw both of Frank’s hands had, indeed, returned into his own, and he smiled as his eyes returned to Frank's bare face.

“I know we have to leave, like, _now_ , but…there's nothin' _else_ left to lose... right?”

Even though Noel had no way in the moment to know where Frank’s trailing words were headed, he could see how his face was creased, almost pained. He could see Frank’s eyebrows raised in the center, with his head leaning up closer while he was speaking. He felt those hands squeeze tight to his own.

Noel felt like he could have read it all anywhere.

He met Frank halfway, their lips catching for the first time—truly the first time, as they both were so caught up the moment Noel almost didn’t catch the way Frank leaned all of himself in and almost sent them toppling over.

“Oh shi—”

Frank clung onto Noel’s broad shoulders like a lifeline.

Noel had enough peace of mind to take a step back to steady them while they both laughed.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Noel reassured between smiles. "We're all good."

It felt only natural for Noel to run his hand over Frank’s face, his thumb brushing over the outside of his cheek where those creases he had learned to notice were still pulling with the other’s reflected smile.

Frank’s hand came up to run fingertips over Noel's dimple lines.

The little touches pulled their eyes closed, and their lips met much more carefully. Slowly, their heads tilted the right way, lips moved together raw and open.

Noel felt the urgency Frank had rushed in with, felt the passion in the way the other's lips tried to take him apart the same way Frank’s hand was snaking under his shirt to get that much more skin-starved touch. Noel realized he was already doing the same, his free hand framing, grasping and running over Frank's back while they breathed in each other's air, while he nipped at Frank's bottom lip until he heard the other responding in kind.

Frank leaned up into his space, and Noel pulled him even closer. Before he could really register, his legs had backed up to the bed, and suddenly he had a lap full of Frank.

Finally breaking for air, Noel's pupil blown eyes took in the color on Frank's cheeks, the way Frank's hand on his face had ended up in the back of his hair,

"Goddamn," Noel mumbled, impressed and affectionate against Frank's lips.

The little laugh that escaped the other felt as warm as it sounded.

"Mm, yeah that about sums it up," Frank said back. "Thanks for not, yanno, freaking out, just always getting it."

"Well, yeah. Thanks for…" Noel realized there were so many things he wanted to say, needed to say, but had no idea how to capture it all into a few words. How could he express what had occurred between them when all other familiarity had broken down over the months while the world stopped turning, revealing what he had come to suspect had already always been there underneath the noise to begin with?

"...Everything?"

Frank's little delighted chuckles tightened Noel's chest with that little thrill, made him smile like the idiot he often felt like. They made Noel's hands hungry for more touches, especially if he could keep pulling these soft, relaxed, little sounds from the other.

"We've got about half an hour before bus call. Think we could do some damage before then?"

The way Frank's smile curved into a smirk around his question made Noel lean in to nip at his bottom lip once again before he graced him with an answer.

"Easily."

A couple hours later and a few thousand feet into the air, they huddled close together in one of the back rows on the team plane. Their arm rest was pulled up between them, and Frank's head had found its way onto Noel's shoulder ‘accidentally’ should anyone bother to ask.

When Noel got a very, very lovely text that made his face pull into a wide smile under his mask, he was lightly nudging Frank's head with said shoulder to rouse him.

"Stop," Frank whined under his breath, settling back in even more in protest.

Noel smirked lightly through his fondness and that little constriction in his chest that welled up again.

"You're going to want to see this."

"The only thing I want to see right now is the back of my eyeli—holy crap, look at _them_."

Noel rolled his eyes lightly at the smile he heard shift into Frank's voice the moment he assumed Frank had finally focused in on the images he was trying to show him on his phone. The kennel where they had put up their dogs was small and nice enough to send them updates, and the latest ones consisted of a batch of photos of Jax and Thor snuggling together like angels, and a couple of them playing tug and looking like the demon beasts they actually were.

"That's our boys," Noel whispered, planting a soft kiss to Frank's hair with the other's hummed agreement. "Think they're gonna want to come home?"

"I don't know," Frank murmured back, glancing up through his tired eyelashes. "I know I want to."

Noel craned his eyes down, biting back his smile as his chest suddenly felt like it was about to burst with the overflow. The taller man leaned down just enough to press his forehead to the shorter's, and he released the pressure off the valve enough to answer.

"Me too."

. . .

"Why...the hell...did we pick _your_ house again?" Frank asked between strained groans. His nose scrunched while he readjusted his grip, his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth a moment later while he put his focus back on helping Noel maneuver his behemoth of a bed frame up the stairs.

"Because-it's-closer-to-the-beach," Noel rushed out in his own strained tone. He pivoted the frame to change the angle as they reached the top of his steps. His tired muscles ached deeply and threatened to give out until he came up onto even ground again, and he could drop it onto the floor.

"Why...the fuck...did we need _your_ bed again?"

Noel might've been glaring at Frank, just slightly, just enough given how much his body was protesting this whole idea. Not the moving in part, but the part where Frank had been so damn stubborn about this one particular thing that all reasoning had gone out the window.

"Because my bed is ten times better?" Frank shrugged like Noel was supposed to know this by now.

Granted, just because the other had said it enough times by this point didn't make it true. Combine it with the fact that Frank hadn't cared about keeping any other large furniture in the move (except for his recliner of course), and all three moving companies they had tried to hire had bailed on them because of Covid, Noel wasn't a happy camper.

Their only saving grace was the fact that it was Fall, so it was only in the high seventies, low eighties, lucky for them.

"Yeah, I don't think so." Noel rolled his eyes.

Frank flashed a smile back at him.

Noel almost wanted to flip him off, but the stubborn man's words were placating him instead.

"Don't worry, Babe, I'll reward your hard work real good in it later, you'll see the light."

Noel sighed, deeply.

. . .

Noel collapsed onto said bed after he finally finished getting the damn thing put back together and set up while Frank moved the rest of the boxes that were left. It wasn't nearly the first time he'd been graced with it's cushy, sinking, cloud-like feeling under his large body. As much as he hated to admit it, he did find that after a minute, his tired, protesting muscles and limbs were finally relaxing in a way he hadn't remembered experiencing in a long, long while.

"Jeez," Noel moaned softly with the relief, his eyes slipping shut.

Not five minutes later, he heard Frank's voice next to him give a very familiar moan.

"Oh yeah, that's the good shit."

Noel forced an eye open and craned a look over at Frank, seeing the other half sprawled out next to him in a similar fashion. He gave a little snort and let his head fall back.

"Brat."

"Just...give me a second, Babe. Then, I'll take care of you real good like. You’ll see."

Noel chuckled, their hands blindly searching and finding each other in the middle, lacing together. Frank's thumb ran over his skin, warming Noel's core pleasantly, even while the rest of him stayed anchored in place.

"Don't worry, I'll need more than a second over here…" Noel’s words trailed, and the silence that followed for a beat seemed to speak volumes.

"Okay, that's...that's good," Frank admitted after a moment with a smile in his voice. "Maybe a few more than that…"

"Babe?"

"Yes, Angel?" Frank laid it on thick, his leg trying to run over Noel’s, though he wasn’t quiet connecting.

"It's okay, we can take a raincheck."

The chuckling sigh that left Frank was all too relatable. "Okay, thank God."

"Ugh, I'm fucking _old_ ," Noel lamented through his own giggles.

Frank snickered a little more, forcing himself to slither up closer into Noel’s side with his own little sounds and whines of pain.

“Ow, ow, oo, shit, why, fuck.”

“Just stop, Babe.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

The moment Frank had gotten his head pressed into Noel, so ready to settle in, a sudden invasion of golden fur, both straight and curled, had hopped onto the bed and in between both of them.

“Thor!”

“Jax!”

Both of the men’s shared half annoyed, half fond protests that fell on seemingly deaf, floppy ears. They were showered with loving dog kisses before both Goldies stubbornly squeezed into their own places amongst the snuggle pile.

When all was settled again, Frank looked at Noel over Thor's head.

"Hey."

Noel rested his chin on top of Jax's curls comfortably.

"Hm?"

Frank's face took on that playful look, his eyes glinting with that deep seeded knowing while he spoke, "Thanks for accidentally laying me out during Prov conditioning day."

Noel, forever humbled by an everlasting shred of guilt he had never been able to forgive himself for, smiled softly in instant recognition to the reference of the day they met.

"Why on Earth are you thanking me for that now?"

"Cause one, I can finally admit how hot it was—"

Noel was seized by a hard laugh, pressing it into Jax. After a second, he had tears coming out of his eyes. Frank even laughed along with him for a long moment.

"You absolute _masochist_." Noel got out, his own horror on full display.

"Only about half the time and that's neither here nor there," Frank smiled through another round of Noel's laughs until he could be heard once more. "But two, in a weird way, this never would have happened if that hadn't, and this is completely worth that ten times over, at least."

Noel finally softened, practically melted coy right into Frank's hands.

"I really didn't mean to..."

Frank grinned, laced their fingers together, and kissed them sweet.

"I know, Baby. You know what they say though. Sometimes, we just have happy accidents."

Noel held back his chance to tease Frank for the Bob Ross reference in favor of whole-hearted, cheesy, hand-squeezed agreement.

"Yeah, happy little accidents."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading, ya'll! Please feel free to leave respectful feedback below ^^ Also, I know this pairing doesn't have a lot of fic for them, so if there is something ya'll might want to read, let me know, and I'll see if it sparks anything. 💚


End file.
